The service passage bends beneath the keep and opens into a cramped maintenance court. Wind drives salt dust through broken grates while Tracy and Thomas keep the ledger and sealed packet hidden beneath their coats.
Thomas Olsen
Marin stayed behind with the informant. We cannot bring this evidence through the main halls, not until we know who still answers to that seal.
Thomas sets the ledger on an overturned crate beneath a dead lamp. Its pages list patrol changes, supply diversions, and repeated initials beside the salt works symbol.
Thomas Olsen
The same hand touches every route. If we expose the name too soon, the machine’s people may bury the proof, or trigger whatever they planted in the Barony.
The sealed packet is heavier than its size suggests. Beneath the keep’s distant bells, something inside shifts once, softly, as though the contents were packed around a mechanism.
Thomas Olsen
We can take it back to Marin, open it under guard, and confront the seal holder. Or we can follow the next delivery and catch the network moving.
A gust rattles the court gate. Beyond it, the keep continues its ordinary rhythm, unaware that its patrol routes and the weaponization of the mind machine may now rest in Tracy’s hands.